Chief Joseph & the Flight of the Nez Perce (17 page)

The Nez Perce, meanwhile, were moving ever farther ahead, aiming toward the Christian Nez Perce settlement of Kamiah a few miles up the river past the site of Looking Glass's ravaged village. There they could commandeer the boats owned by the Christian Nez Perce and make their way across the Clearwater River and up into the safety of the Weippe Prairie in the foothills of the Bitterroots. Sadly, this crossing would be easier than their last river fording at the Salmon, for most of their household goods, much of their food and clothing, and many of their horses and cattle were still back in the campsite they had just abandoned, being ransacked, burned, and appropriated by gleeful soldiers and settlers.

Though insignificant as a military battle, the fight at the Clearwater was, in fact, a watershed event. Howard was quickly becoming the subject of much scrutiny and public derision after the devastating defeat at White Bird Canyon. Every braggart settler anywhere in the Plateau region, and indeed in the entire West, was convinced he could do better, and each was quick to make those declarations publicly and repeatedly. The residents in the areas that had been touched by the Nez Perce conflict, faced with the realities of murdered neighbors and the rumors of Indian atrocities, were justifiably upset by military failures such as those at White Bird Canyon and now were loudly demanding better military protection and more competent military leadership.

Howard was not insensitive to these criticisms, so he was anxious to put a good face on any military success. With his newfound friend, Sutherland, available to post glowing dispatches about his bravery and leadership, he had found his chance in the skirmish at the Clearwater.

Howard knew that a strong enemy makes an opposing commander look good, and a great opposing general makes the victorious general look even better. Every time he had been called into the Plateau country, it had somehow involved an issue with Joseph. He had heard the man's eloquence and seen the way that the other nontreaty chiefs had deferred to him on matters concerning the Wallowa. So he erroneously assumed that this imposing, charismatic, formidable chief was also the energetic, charismatic, formidable military leader of all the nontreaty bands.

As a result, in his reports and in the dispatches from his friend, Sutherland, his military campaign was depicted as a struggle with the masterful war chief, Joseph, whose brilliant leadership and field strategies and tactics only served to make Howard's victory seem even greater. Taking Howard's lead, Sutherland referred to the Nez Perce as “Joseph's people” and soon adopted the military shorthand of making observations such as “Joseph is in full retreat.” In the public's mind, the Nez Perce were rapidly becoming “Joseph's people,” and every military action was becoming an engagement between the Civil War general, Howard, and Joseph, the Nez Perce general and leader of the Nez Perce people.

Meanwhile, the Nez Perce were anything but Joseph's people. They were not even united among themselves. It had been all the chiefs could do to get everyone moving in a single direction. Even questions of allegiance still had not been sorted out. Many families included members who lived among the treaty factions as well as among the nontreaty bands. This had never presented a problem because all knew that a person or family could cross back and forth between sides if they decided that the Christian way or the traditional way was better. But now, with bullets flying, lines were hardening. In fact, in the Clearwater skirmish, one of the treaty Nez Perce fighting for the soldiers and even wearing a blue soldier's jacket learned that his father had been killed while fighting on the nontreaty side, so he raced across the ground between the two factions, enduring fire from both camps, threw off his coat, and led a charge of the nontreaties against the soldiers he had just abandoned.

Others changed sides in the opposite direction. They were uncomfortable with the rampaging and killings committed by the young warriors and knew some of the whites who had died for no cause other than the color of their skin. Others saw what was coming and did not want to be forever divided and exiled from their families. Many were simply afraid.

Broader questions too were coming into high relief, especially for the fleeing bands. It was now clear that they were not acting with common purpose, and this was costing them dearly. It was failure to control the young men at the campsite in Camas Prairie that had involved them all in this fight; it was failure to have a common military purpose at Clearwater that had resulted in the surprise retreat that had forced them to flee unpacked and unprepared. The time had come to become one people under strong command or to scatter and go their respective ways.

But before any such decision was made, one last unified military action would be attempted. If Howard could be beaten in a standing fight for which the Nez Perce were prepared, perhaps a good end to the situation could be achieved. After all, the killings had been done by only a small group of young men raging out of control. Perhaps, if Howard could be stopped, there would be time to explain. The fording place at the Nez Perce village of Kamiah presented this opportunity.

Kamiah sat on the edge of the Clearwater River, nestled in a deep valley about twelve miles from the site of the Clearwater skirmish and a slightly lesser distance from Looking Glass's now-devastated village. It was among the most successful and Christianized of the Nez Perce settlements. It had a wooden church with a tall, pointed steeple, a small schoolhouse, and fields of corn and vegetables. White missionaries had been living at Kamiah since shortly after the arrival of the Reverend Spalding at the Lapwai, and it was the traditional home of some of the most influential of the Christian Nez Perce—men like James Lawyer and James Reuben. The Nez Perce here were devoutly Presbyterian, and they did not want to be drawn into the conflict with the white soldiers.

But Kamiah was also the site of the Heart of the Monster, the great land mound where the Nez Perce people believed themselves to have been created. If there was a place of sacred power from which the fleeing bands could draw spiritual nourishment for a final fight, this was it. It also was a strategic spot for battle, since it necessitated another river crossing by the soldiers. The Nez Perce warriors, well positioned, could destroy the soldiers as they struggled to cross to the other side.

Though the fleeing bands had suffered the loss of many of their possessions and had been forced to scatter in disarray, they were neither hurried nor frightened. Their misfortune had been the result of poor preparation and miscalculation, both things that could be corrected. They paraded single file down the hills toward the village of Kamiah, confident that they could finish their business with the soldiers one way or another at this destination.

The Kamiah Nez Perce, in their white people's clothing and short hair, wanted nothing to do with the nontreaty Nez Perce, resplendent in their beaded buckskin, “heathen” braids, and Dreamer forelocks. They refused the nontreaties the use of their boats, and they commanded their children to remain in their houses, far away from their brothers and sisters and cousins who still lived in the ways of spiritual darkness.

But if their concern was spiritual, it was also practical. They were a peaceful people, and they had been appalled at the alcohol-crazed actions of the young warriors gathering across the river. They did not wish to be seen as aiding the Nez Perce who had done such unnecessary killing and burning, and they were not at all interested in incurring the wrath of the military for aiding and abetting an enemy. Nonetheless, they could not deny that the people massing across the river were their brothers and sisters. They hoped to persuade them to give up their warring ways so all the Nez Perce could live in peace with the American government.

But the nontreaty people were of a different mind. They set up their lodges across the river from the Heart of the Monster and began constructing buffalo skin bull boats to ferry themselves and their remaining goods across. Their strategy was simple. The families would ford the river and begin moving very visibly into the foothills of the Bitterroots just to the east. The warriors would remain out of sight on the near side of the river to await the soldiers, who would see the fleeing families and come rushing after in hot pursuit. When the soldiers reached the river, the warriors would ambush them in a hail of rifle fire. The military would be decimated and the pursuit brought to a halt.

The next day, when the soldiers appeared on the crest of the distant hill, the warriors put this plan into action. As the cavalry came riding down toward the river, the men opened fire from their hiding places. The assault was withering. The warriors now had a number of repeating weapons, which allowed them to fire rapidly upon the troops. They also had single-shot, breech-loading weapons, which rejected the spent shells and could refire as quickly as another shell could be inserted. These were a far cry from the muzzle-loading rifles that many of them had been raised with, which required a fighter to stop, tamp powder down the barrel of a his gun, insert a ball, and then fire it with minimal accuracy in the rough direction of the desired target. Though some men, like Toohoolhoolzote, still clung to the old muzzle-loading weapons, most of the Nez Perce were now equipped with rifles that were the equal of any possessed by white soldiers and settlers. And they were skilled in using them.

The barrage of fire caught the cavalry unawares. They jumped from their horses in a panic and quickly retreated to cover several hundred yards back from the river, where they awaited instructions on how to proceed.

The Nez Perce kept goading them to attack. But General Howard did not wish to engage on these terms. He knew that his cavalry was no match in either horsemanship or bravery for the Nez Perce, and his infantry, though courageous, could not do the job alone. So instead he attempted a ruse. The route back to Fort Lapwai lay directly along the Clearwater. If he could make it seem that his troops had given up the fight and were returning to the fort, perhaps he could cross the river on a log ferry that he knew was tied up farther along the river and circle in behind the Nez Perce. He was unsure if the hostiles were intending to head north to enlist the aid of other tribes to initiate the long-dreaded, Plateau-wide Indian war or were moving toward the Weippe Prairie and the start of the trail over the mountains. In either case, they would likely encamp in the Weippe because it was a traditional stopping place and one of the few spots where they could find forage and campsites enough for all their horses and people. If he could beat them there, he could drive them backward toward his own troops who remained at the Clearwater and finish them off in a pincer move.

Making a public show of changing direction, he turned his cavalry north, as if he intended to return to Fort Lapwai. But the Nez Perce were not so easily fooled. They sniffed out Howard's ploy and sent a band of warriors to cut the guy rope that was used to haul the flat, log ferry across the river, leaving the raft banging helplessly against the shore in the swift current. If Howard truly intended to cross, he would have no choice but to return to his camp near Kamiah, where he would have to force his balky horses across the river in a time-consuming and difficult fording.

In the meantime, the remaining Nez Perce did indeed head up the narrow trails out of the river valley into the high meadows of the Weippe. They had not succeeded in wiping out Howard's troops, but they had one final trick for the general. While he was executing his sham march north, the Nez Perce sent word through the Christian Nez Perce that Joseph wished to discuss surrender. The Wallowa chief, they said, was at odds with the other chiefs and did not wish to subject his people to further difficulties. He was far from his homeland, and many of his people were without food and household goods after the caching at the first Salmon crossing and the attack at the Clearwater. He wanted only fair justice for his people, and then he would willingly lead them to the Lapwai and accept life on the reservation.

When the treaty messengers caught up with Howard and delivered the message, the general hurried back to begin the negotiation. But he found no Joseph, only a warrior named No Heart standing across the river shouting toward the soldiers and Nez Perce scouts. No Heart said he was a messenger from Joseph and wished to agree to terms of the surrender. Joseph, he explained, had been forced by the other chiefs to continue his flight but was prepared to turn in himself and his people under the right circumstances.

Even though he had been hoping to speak with Joseph himself, Howard was excited by this apparent turn of events. He was not willing to negotiate anything beyond unconditional surrender, but he promised an honest tribunal overseen by nine men that he would handpick for their fairness. No Heart continued pressing for conditions, and the discussions went back and forth for hours, with Howard getting more and more frustrated. Eventually, someone fired a shot, and No Heart turned his backside to Howard and slapped his buttocks—a sign of complete contempt—and rode off.

Howard feared he had been tricked, but he decided to wait until morning to see if Joseph truly would turn himself in. Fording the troops would be difficult and time consuming, so it was worthwhile to wait. Perhaps his terms would be relayed to Joseph, and the chief, so concerned about the well-being of his people, would see the offer as fair and desirable. With Joseph in his hands, the other bands could cross the mountains or be hunted down at Howard's leisure. He would have the prize most sought, the public criticism of his military would die down, and the dangers to the people in his area of command would be over.

But Joseph did not show the next morning. Instead, a band led by a man named Red Heart emerged. They had been returning from buffalo country and had run into the fleeing Nez Perce in the Weippe Prairie. Wishing nothing to do with the war, they had proceeded down the trail to the crossing at the Clearwater. There they encountered Howard. Though they knew nothing about the fighting and wished to stay as far from hostilities as possible, their long hair and traditional dress marked them in the soldiers' minds as belligerents. They were taken prisoner and stripped of their horses and saddles, then marched sixty miles through the stifling July heat to Fort Lapwai, from which they could be shipped to Fort Vancouver to be held in captivity.